Winter Storm Warning
by trustingHim17
Summary: "…We can expect several feet of snow over a forty-eight-hour period, though how many feet remains to be seen.." Tennessee doesn't get blizzards, does it? Fluff story of an adventure Grace's senior year. T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

"Westbound Interstate 40 is still closed after the fatal five-car pileup four hours ago. State patrol suggests the road should be cleared within a few more hours…"

I sat on my bed half-listening to the evening news while trying to figure out my homework. Junior year had definitely been the hardest school year, but senior year of high school came with plenty of homework, and calculus two was throwing me for a loop.

"Eight state governors have already declared a "state of emergency" as Winter Storm Procella looms. Meteorologists predict landfall by tomorrow afternoon…"

Barely registering the drone of the tv, I tried to finish the integration problem I was stuck on, but realized I had worked it wrong. I erased my work and started to try again, only to stop as I glanced at the tv. Three words on the subtitle catch my attention, and I turned it up.

"…We can expect several feet of snow over a forty-eight-hour period, though how many feet remains to be seen. Procella will make landfall just south of us, near Charleston, then crawl up the coast toward New England…"

I was stunned for a second. _Feet_ of snow? This is Tennessee; we don't get _feet_ of snow. We barely get inches. I watch the video for another minute or so as the news anchor described the other storm coming in from the east. The two storms were going to collide right above us, completely pounding us with snow.

Of course, my first thought was utter joy: no school tomorrow! Which means no homework tonight! Then reality set in, "Oh, crud!" I bolted down the stairs.

"Mom! Machaela! Jesse! Turn on the news!"

I hurried into the living room where I found them lounging on the couch staring at me, some mystery solving show on the tv. I reached down and scooped up the remote. Pressing the record button to save their show, I turned it to the local news, which was now showing sole coverage of the coming storm.

Once they realized what was going on, various versions of euphemisms started flying around, and I spoke up again. "We need to get a move on. It's due midday tomorrow, but I bet it'll hit sooner. Mom, the store should still be open. We need to have enough food and supplies to last at least a week and a half. We currently only have a few days' worth, and we all know the town won't reopen for a while. The shelves are probably getting bare even now. Jesse, go bring in as much firewood as you can. Stack it in the garage. They said earlier the temperatures will stay in the twenties during the day for a while. Machaela, help me turn the living room into a sleeping area, then we're going to start putting wards around the house."

Mom was out the door almost before I finished speaking. She would go to the small shop up the street first before trying Walmart, and she took along her LotusCash card to make sure we could afford that many groceries at once, especially since a betting war could get started with the incoming storm. With how crazy people here acted with only a few inches, I knew people would go insane with the real storm coming in. We rarely get snow in this part of the country, so several feet coming in would close the town. She may have to fight for some groceries.

Jesse grabbed a coat and gloves and went out back, where I soon heard him moving wood in. We'd use that in the wood fireplace. As long as he brought in a big enough stack, we'd have heat and something to cook over if the power went out.

Machaela and I cranked up the volume so we could hear the storm coverage, then started moving around the house gathering blankets, pillows, and other bedding. We also plugged in any rechargeable device, plus all of our power-packs to ensure things stayed charged if the power went out. We found fresh batteries and assigned them to various devices, and brought candles down from the tops of closets.

By the time we gathered everything we might need downstairs, Mom was back from the store with a carload of groceries, which we helped put away. She went to help Jesse with the firewood and Machaela and I went outside to the front of the house to start warding the house. We couldn't do anything in the way of preventing the snow from falling or piling up, but our spells made sure the house wouldn't collapse under the weight, and the cold would better stay on the outside.

Finally, a few hours after sundown, we'd done everything we could to prepare, and all we could do was wait for the storm to hit.

And hit it did. Though not forecasted until the next afternoon, snow had started to fall by the time I woke early the next morning.

By lunchtime, we had at least a foot of snow on the ground, and the four of us decided to have some fun with it. The snow still falling hard, we bundled up and went outside. Without a hill to sled down, we planned to build a snowman.

Mom and Machaela turned and started compacting the quickly gathering snow when I got a mischievous idea. I glanced over at Jesse, then grabbed a plastic stick I'd brought out with me. The stick had an empty ball on the end, cut in half, with one side spring loaded to close the sphere when pressed. Holding up my toy, I slammed it up and down in the thick snow, then swung it like a lacrosse stick. A tightly packed snowball hit Machaela in the back right as I hid my snowball launcher. I looked around as if search for sticks for our snowman and Machaela, unsure which of us had thrown the snowball, went back to gathering snow. By now, Jesse had realized what I'd done. I packed another snowball, and he packed a second. Mine hit Machaela again, while Jesse's hit Mom.

Machaela spun around in time to see Jesse's hit Mom, and that time I couldn't pretend innocence. I dove behind a nearby tree while Machaela and Mom stopped gathering snow and started packing it into snowballs, and a snowball fight ensued.

Snowman completely forgotten, the snowballs flew back and forth across the yard until all of us were much too frozen to continue the fight, and too worn out from tromping through the now-foot-and-a-half deep snow. We piled inside to warm up and dry off.

 **Hello, my wonderful readers. This is a new story I started writing after my state got hit with a record blizzard just over a month ago. There won't be an updating schedule for this. It's not done yet and I don't know when I'll get to it, but posting this first chapter is a promise to finish it. Let me know what you think of this first chapter! :)**

 **Someone I used to talk to has a b-day today. Idk if you read my stories anymore, but happy birthday! You know who you are :)**

 **My eternal disclaimer is still on my profile.**


	2. Chapter 2

Shortly after dinner, with the news anchors droning about the falling snow and all the drivers stranded around town ( _cough_ idiots _cough_ ), I was looking out the window. By this time, we had just under two feet of snow, and I was pondering how we'd get around after this ended. Every road would be impassable, and we didn't have a sleigh.

Jesse came up behind me, apparently thinking the same thing. "People are going to need help after this."

"I know," I replied. "I'm just trying to think of ways to get to them, using the materials we have. We're virtually stranded up here. The nearest town with plows and other supplies is an hour's drive away in good weather."

We started bouncing ideas off each other, but he'd lived in Egypt for several years and didn't have a good handle on the idea of snow. Last winter was the first time he'd even seen snow (that he could remember), but last winter was also New York's warmest winter in decades, so they only got about six inches total all winter.

I kept looking out the window, trying to figure out a way to get across the snow. I remembered seeing something in Colorado a few Christmases ago…

"That's it!"

Everyone looked over at me with various levels of perplexity written on their face, but I waved them off and rushed upstairs. I remembered people using snowshoes a couple of years ago when Denver got a really bad storm. What's more, I remembered what they looked like, and knew how I could build some.

Once upstairs, I went into my freezing-cold room and started digging through my closet. I quickly found several sturdy pieces of wood I'd been planning on making into a pair of stilts to play with, then went to Machaela's pile of various materials she tinkered with and grabbed a roll of heavy-duty wire and a pair of needle nose pliers.

I carried all my materials downstairs where it was warm and dumped them in a well-lit corner. Noticing everyone looking at me, I finally spoke what I was thinking.

"Once this storm ends, there are going to be several people who will need help digging out, and others whose homes might not be inhabitable for a day or two—or more. Schools and community centers will be open for these people to use, but the matter is getting to them. There's both a community center and a school within easy walking distance from here. We need to make snowshoes so we can get to them."

"Do we have a sled somewhere?" Machaela spoke up.

"Yeah," I answered her. "A long toboggan. It's above the garage, right, Mom?"

She nodded. "It's in front, too, so it'll be easy to get down."

"Ok," I directed us back to my project, "then we just need to build these. Everyone grab some sticks. You'll need four pieces the same length, about an inch longer than your shoe."

A couple pieces had to be cut down to size, and more than once we had to trade out, but eventually all four of us had four sticks each, each stick an inch or so longer than our shoe.

I then started wrapping the thick wire between the wood, making sure to keep the gap wide enough to step in. "Machaela," I asked as I worked, "do you have any more of this wire? And more pliers? If you do, we could all work at the same time." She went off to look, coming back as I finished wiring my first shoe. She only had one more wire roll, but we managed to finish my shoes, plus one of hers before we hit the sack.

The next morning we spent finishing our snowshoes. By lunchtime, we each had a pair of shoes we could strap onto our boots to let us walk atop the snow.

The snow continued to pile up. With the snow much too thick to even consider going out in it to play, we decided to play board and card games. Machaela won just about every round of Monopoly, Jesse proved good at most card games, and I liked the strategy of Rummikub. Mom soon gave up trying to win those, and taught us how to play Phase 10.

About two hours before sunset, we were taking a break from the games when I thought I heard something outside. The falling snow muted any noise, but when I glanced outside towards the closest houses, I heard a crash and a cloud of snow lifted. In the kitchen behind me, the lights flickered and went out.

Machaela came running into the room before I had a chance to realize what had happened. "The neighbor's house collapsed!"

 **Yeah, I know. Short chapter. Sorry about that but there's nowhere else to end it. Next chapter will be much longer. Let me know what you're thinking about this extremely fluffy story! Next chapter will be up sometime next week, unless I get lots of reviews (hint hint :D)**


	3. Chapter 3

We sprang into action. Mom hurried to grab the sled and some shovels, and we all bundled up against the cold. With our snowshoes strapped to our feet, we rushed outside to help any way we could.

With the snow as deep as our porch is high, it wasn't so much jumping down from the porch as it was running out from the porch as we hurried up to where the road should be, then across the clearing to the small collection of houses nearby. At first, I could find nothing wrong. The Jackson house looked fine…

Then I saw the Stephens' house—or, at least where it used to be. All that remained of their house was a pile of rubble. Towards the back, I saw one room still standing, probably the bedroom the previous owners had added before selling the house to the Stephens'. Next to the house was a downed light pole, which explained the power outage. The collapsing house had probably knocked it over.

"Susan! Where are you? John!" Mom called out.

"Mrs. Stephens! Cindy! Are you guys alright?" I paused a second, waiting for a reply. Nothing.

"They probably had gathered in the living room like we are," Mom said. "That's around back." We followed her around to the rear of the house, opposite the still-standing bedroom.

"Here," Mom pointed.

"Alright," Machaela decided. "Let's split up. Jesse, you and Mom take that side. We'll take this side and meet in the middle. It looks like we may be the only ones able to look. Everyone else is snowed in."

I glanced around while making my way to the other side of the living area. Machaela was right. Everyone else was snowed into their house. Their front door couldn't open due to snow, and crawling out the window would be pretty dangerous. We had different priorities for now, though.

Reaching the edge of the living area, I started picking my way through the debris looking for any sign. Lifting wood, moving shingles, digging through drywall, I could find no sign of our neighbors and, with the storm still raging, I couldn't even listen to try to hear them.

"I found something!"

I hurried over to where Machaela was holding up a chunk of roof. Beneath the roof was an air pocket clear of debris. I helped her lift the materials higher and looked deeper into the pocket. Finally, I saw what she'd seen. Jesse came over and helped Machaela hold up the heavy debris, and I crawled under it.

I quickly noticed how much quieter it was under the debris. The storm couldn't penetrate this deep, but below the level of the snow, it quickly got too dark to see. I called up a _tyet_ for light and continued deeper into what used to be a house. A couple yards back, I found a shoe. Making my way further, the shoe connected to Mrs. Stephens. At first, I thought she was unconscious, but she responded to my light. I pushed off the debris covering her and helped her turn around to crawl out.

"Are you injured?" I asked her.

"I don't think so. I just couldn't find my way out."

"Good," I replied. "Was your husband and daughter with you?"

Her eyes got big, realizing we hadn't found them yet. "John was next to me. He should be close by, but Cindy had gone to the bathroom. She could be anywhere." She started getting anxious, especially for her twelve-year-old daughter, which was understandable, but I reassured her and sent her the way I came.

"When you get out there, tell them I'm going deeper." She nodded and started picking her way toward the outside light while I went deeper.

The pocket I'd found Mrs. Stephens in only went a few more feet before a large support beam blocked my path. Disappointed, I turned to go back, but noticed a small gap over the beam. I could at least look past.

I crawled up to it and held my glowing _tyet_ next to the gap. "Mr. Stephens!" I called when I didn't see anyone. "Are you in there?" I listened a moment. Hearing nothing, I tried again. "Mr. Stephens, can you hear me?"

Still hearing nothing, I turned to leave but froze when I thought I heard something. It came again, faintly. "Here!"

I hurried back to the gap above the beam. "Call out again! Lead me to you!"

"Here!" I heard again, louder this time. I managed to trace it to a pile of rubble about ten feet past the beam. "We're coming!" I promised.

Unable to get over or under the large beam, I backed up a bit, then started looking for thin places in the pile above me. It took several minutes, but, after turning off my "light," I finally found a spot where the debris was thinnest.

I stuck my arm through the hole, trying to catch everyone's attention, but my arm wouldn't reach far enough. Looking around, I attempted to find something to shove up through the small hole, but the hole was too small. I resorted to magic, casting an easy spell that simply shot up a flare.

A second later, I felt the rubble shift as Machaela and Jesse dropped the piece of roof, then shake as they ran toward me.

A shadow fell over the small hole above me. "Are you alright?" Mom asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I called back. "I found Mr. Stephens, but I can't get to him. There's a large support beam in the way. If my sense of direction is right, he's a few steps east of my position." Footsteps moved toward Mr. Stephens. "Yes! That way."

The footsteps faded into the storm towards Mr. Stephens, while above me, pieces of debris started moving around. Soon enough, there was room enough for me to crawl out. Above, I found Jesse waiting for me. Susan Stephens, Mom, and Machaela were several steps to my left moving debris around.

Closing my eyes, I pulled up a mental picture of the area past the beam, then I started moving, voicing my thoughts aloud as I went. "Let's see, the beam should be about here, and he was…this way about…10 steps." I walked to my best guess of where his voice had been. "Over here, guys!"

At my call, they moved over a bit and we all started moving rubble around. Finally, we found him and helped him limp out of the remains of his home.

His wife, who had been searching a few feet away, rushed over to tackle him in a hug. She quickly had to help him stay upright, though, as he had a growing knot on the back of his head. Machaela ran over to help, but he wasn't focused on his pounding head.

"Where's Cindy?"

"Are you hurt anywhere besides your head?" Machaela asked, trying to start treating him, but he would none of it.

"Don't worry about me!" He planted his feet firmly and stopped leaning on his wife. "We have to find my daughter."

Machaela looked over at Jesse and me, hoping we'd help. I studied Mr. Stephens a moment, then shrugged my shoulders at my sister. If he was able to stand and walk without hurting himself further, I saw no reason to focus on him immediately.

Seeing no help from us, Machaela gave in. "Ok, but if you start feeling lightheaded, go sit down. Deal?"

He gave a hesitant nod, and I changed the subject. "Assuming we're at the living room, where's the bathroom and how would Cindy have gotten there?"

Both of them looked around a moment, getting their bearings in the house, then started moving, however slowly. "The entrance to the hallway would have been about here," Mrs. Stephens gestured to a spot about twenty feet from where we'd found Mr. Stephens, "and the bathroom was the first door on the left. She could be anywhere from here to that large beam sticking up." She pointed to an enormous support beam that protruded from the rubble about fifteen feet away. "The bathroom was about eight feet square."

"Ok," I said, trying to picture what it would have looked like still standing. "How long was she gone? Is she more likely to be in the bathroom or the hallway?"

"She was gone several minutes. She could have been on her way back."

I nodded, doing mental calculations. A quick glance at Jesse showed he'd come to the same conclusion and I spoke up. "Jesse, you and I will search the bathroom. Everyone else, start on each end of the hallway and meet in the middle. We'll cover the ground quickest that way."

Mr. and Mrs. Stephens stayed on the living room side of the hallway, while Mom and Machaela followed Jesse and me to the opposite side. As we came to the other side, Machaela noted something that made me pray Cindy had been in the bathroom. "I'm not feeling any air pockets," she muttered. "If she's in the hallway, she's going to be well buried."

Knowing she maybe be injured, plus the extreme cold, we quickly started digging, but without knowing where she was in the house we had no idea exactly where to look. For a child of Athena who likes to plan, this made the search extremely taxing. I had to keep reminding myself to quit analyzing and just keep searching.

When the house had collapsed, many of the pipes had burst, of course, but those same pipes were now visible, giving us an outline of where the bathroom had been. Thinking she might have tried to take shelter, Jesse started uncovering the bathtub, while I searched the other side of the room. Occasionally we called to the others asking if they'd found anything, but the answer was always negative.

This part of the house had quite a bit more debris than the living room, as here there was an upstairs above it, and we had to dig down to the first floor's rubble, at the bottom. Finally, I started finding pieces of tile, and knew I was getting close.

Underneath the rubble, I found a hard, slightly cracked surface. Bummed and thinking I'd simply found an empty floor, I turned to search elsewhere. Then I happened to glanced at the supposed "floor" again. No floor is slightly concave with a hole in the middle!

I started clearing the rubble around the smooth surface, which I figured must be the sink. Soon enough, I could get a hand under it. I squeezed my hand underneath the lip of the sink, trying to pry it up. I got more than I bargained for, though. I nearly jumped out of my skin when another hand grabbed mine!

Getting over the unexpected contact, I called out for help. Jesse ran over at my call and helped me clear all the way around the sink. The others, having heard me call out, came running as well. They had quite a bit of rubble to cover, and Jesse and I had cleared the area well before they got there. We lifted up the heavy sink, and Mr. and Mrs. Stephens about tackled their daughter in the joy of finding her.

"Can't breathe!" she protested right after letting out a pained yelp. Her parents quickly loosened their grip, and Machaela stepped up to see if she was hurt.

Cindy was holding her arm, which I could see through her sweater was starting to swell a bit.

While Machaela checked her to see what was wrong, I surveyed what remained of their house. Making my way over to the one standing room, I pushed the door open to find a small bedroom, not much bigger than a large walk-in closet. They wouldn't be able to live there. For one thing, there's no way it would stay warm.

I looked over to find Mom watching me, knowing what I'm doing. I shook my head. The Stephens couldn't live here. She looked to her feet, thinking a moment, before making up her mind.

She looked back to the little family to find them studying their house as well, and starting to shiver from the cold. Machaela was using a compression bandage to soft-splint Cindy's arm until we could get to a first-aid kit. "Come on," Mom told them. "Let's get you warmed up."

We started picking our way back to the house. They'd be staying with us for a while.

I stayed near the back, keeping watch, and Cindy ended up stumbling along next to me. Small for her age and without snowshoes, she was having a difficult time walking through the snow, especially as she was holding her bad arm close to her body, trying to avoid jarring it.

We still had quite a ways through deep snow to get back, so I led her a bit off the path to where a large rock should be under the snow.

"Step up," I told her. "There should be a large rock here." She found it easily enough and crawled on, wondering what I was doing, but grateful for the short reprieve from the deep snow.

As she climbed up, I pulled off my outer coat and put it on her.

"Thank you." She pulled the coat tightly around her, glad for the warmth.

Standing on the rock put her just under the height of the snow, about four feet off the ground. Knowing she'd just get cold again trudging her way through the snow, I turned around.

"Climb on. I think my shoes can handle both our weights."

I was itching to know what had happened inside that house and how she'd gotten hurt when she was under the sink, but knew she wouldn't want to open up to me quite yet. The five-year age gap meant I really only knew her as a neighbor, daughter of my mom's friend, plus it had to have been scary. I might ask her later if she was willing to talk about it.

She crawled onto my back for a piggyback ride, and I started walking to catch up with the others. After experimenting a bit to make sure I could trust my shoes, I spoke up.

"Hey, Cindy?"

"Yeah?"

"Hang on tighter."

She shifted a little to grab tighter as she asked, "Why?"

Instead of answering, I took off trotting across the snow, slow at first, then faster when I knew she was enjoying it.

We passed the others with a whoop and a cloud of snow as both her parent jerked to look, then smiled when they saw us.

I galloped down the driveway, dropping her onto the porch and turning around to find a large smile on her face.

"That was awesome!"

I chuckled, "Good," I replied, still smiling. "How about we finish wrapping your arm, then make some hot chocolate for everyone?"

She nodded, and I led her inside.

I sat her down on the table then grabbed our first aid kit from the closet. Running out to the back porch, I grabbed two twigs from the tree next to the house, then went back inside. I used the twigs as a splint, and wrapped another layer of bandages around her arm. The first layer would keep her from getting splinters; the second would hold the sticks in place, keeping her arm straight. I didn't know for sure it was broken, but with how painful it was for her, better safe than sorry.

Once I'd wrapped her arm and make shifted a sling, I banked the fire and started heating water atop the metal fireplace. The others made it just as the water was starting to boil. We all grabbed a cup and some chocolate mix, then gathered around the fire as the sun set outside.

 **Is anyone still reading this? nobody reviewed the last chapter. anyway, let me know what you think :D**


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, we all woke just after sunrise to the sunlight coming in the window. We hadn't seen the sun in three days, and it took us a minute to realize what we were seeing. Jesse realized it first, but soon all of us were at the windows. The storm had stopped in the night, leaving a total of four and a half feet of snow on the ground.

With the storm gone, the Stephens' wanted to inspect their house, and the four of us decided to head out too. We all bundled up (except Cindy, who'd had enough of the snow and couldn't help anyway with her arm) and grabbed shovels, the sled, and anything else we could use to dig our neighbors out of their house.

Walking up the driveway, I studied Mr. Stephens—John, he'd told me to call him. He seemed to be a bit unsteady, but that might be the crudely made snowshoes. He'd hit his head pretty hard when the house collapsed, but didn't seem to have sustained any permanent damage.

Machaela, the resident healer, being the best at first aid, had decided John had a slight concussion, but probably nothing about which to worry. Cindy, she'd decided, probably had either a hairline fracture or a bruised ulna, both of which are extremely painful, from subconsciously using her arm to protect herself from the falling debris as she ran under the sink. Susan and John were just glad she was alright.

Susan and John separated from the rest of us, bringing me out of my thoughts, and I looked around. We had five houses in our general area, four now with the Stephens house gone. One had a family with two wheelchair-bound children, one was an elderly widow, and the other two were middle-age families who were already starting to dig themselves out.

The wheelchair-bound family was closest and would probably need to get out first, so that's where we went.

Using the shovels to dig, and the sled to carry the snow away, we slowly cleared the door. Their porch was much smaller than ours was, and the snow had drifted quite a ways onto the porch, shutting them in. Once we got the porch cleared, Dave, the father, came out to help, and by midmorning, we had a way cleared to the street. When plows got around to us, which might be a while, he would be able to make it to town. He decided to clean the rest of the wheelchair ramp off, but we left to help someone else.

Next, we went over to Jean's house. She'd lived alone since her husband, Bud, died, and as far as we knew, she didn't have any family. We found the house dark, and while the sun was out, there should have been one light on. She always had a lamp next to her chair on whether she needed it or not.

Not knowing Jean as well as us, Jesse and Machaela opted to start working on her driveway and very long porch, while Mom and I checked on Jean.

We tried knocking on the front door first, of course, but Jean wasn't answering, so we went around to her bedroom window. All we could see in there was a bundle of blankets, no movement.

After knocking on her window trying to get an answer, we had no choice. I went around to the door. With a quick divine word, we were in. Mom checked the kitchen, while I went straight to the bedroom.

I found Jean there, huddled under the covers, trying to keep warm in her frigid house. She hadn't noticed me yet. Checking a light switch confirmed she had no power, and probably hadn't since the night before. Without a wood-burning stove, nor the ability to stock it if she had one, she had no way to heat her house.

"Jean?" I asked, trying to alert her I was there without scaring her. "Jean, can you hear me?"

She moved a bit at the sound of her name, but she probably thought my voice was outside, and didn't bother trying to answer.

"Jean," I said again as I touched her shoulder. At the contact, her eyes popped open and she stared at me, initially not fully comprehending I was there.

Just then, Mom came into the room. "Kitchen's empty," she told me before "noticing" Jean there. "Jean, why didn't you call us?"

We both knew Jean wasn't in the kitchen. Mom meant there was no food left. Apparently, Jean had run out of supplies before the storm ran out of snow.

While Mom and Jean talked, I walked around the room gathering a few clothes and blankets and stuffing them into a suitcase. I knew Jean would be staying with us until the power came back on, no matter how much she tried to protest being a burden.

"You're not a burden," I told her when she voiced this yet again. "We have plenty of room, and there's no way we're leaving you in a forty-degree house with no food."

Mom helped her get up. She was already dressed in her warmest, so Mom wrapped her in a couple blankets and helped her walk out to the porch. I followed behind, carrying the bag I'd packed for her.

Jesse met us on the porch with the toboggan after getting my (telempathic) call. As Jean settled herself onto the sled, I studied the driveway. Almost a quarter-mile long, it was going to take a while to clear. In the time Mom and I were gone, Machaela and Jesse had only finished the porch and about five feet from the garage. I glanced around; we were out of sight from any neighbors and the road should someone come by.

"Hey, Machaela!" I called. Both she and Jesse looked over. "I'm taking Jean to the house. Take the shortcut." They both looked around and realized that once Jean and I were out of sight, there would be no witnesses. They grinned and nodded, and I started pulling the sled towards home.

Jean waited until we were halfway to the house before voicing her thoughts. "Which shortcut?"

I glanced back at her, my question clear on my face. _What do you mean?_ I thought about giving her a vague answer about clearing the driveway, but decided to hear her out.

She chuckled. "Well? Greek or Egyptian?"

I looked back at her again, grinning, but waiting for her to elaborate. We were almost to the driveway by now.

"Do Greeks even have a spell for clearing snow?" she mused. "I guess it'd have to be Egyptian, then, wouldn't it?"

I laughed. "It would have to be," I finally told her. "We're not children of Hecate. How do you know about that?"

"Pharaoh keeps the House well up to date," she explained in her shaky voice. "We knew about the Greeks within a week of the meeting, and we also know about the three siblings who are Greek and Egyptian. Though he didn't announce the names, it seemed to fit."

I laughed again and started telling her about the three worlds, finishing just as we came up to the house. I helped her stand from the toboggan, then handed her the cane I'd found next to her bed. Staying close in case she needed a hand, I carried her bag and we went to the living room.

Walking inside, I saw a large pile of bedding piled in the middle of the floor and no sign of Cindy—until the door closed behind Jean, that is. At the slam of the door, the pile jumped and Cindy poked her head out from beneath the layers of blankets.

"Are you comfy?" I asked her with a grin. She nodded and I continued as she noticed Jean behind me. "Jean will be staying with us for a while until she has power back. Help me set up a bed on the couch?"

Climbing out of her nest, she hugged Jean, then started clearing John's bed. Jean couldn't sleep on the floor, so we'd build her a bed on the couch. Mom had had the couch the first night, and John had slept there the previous night, but I knew he wouldn't mind giving it up. We finished setting her bed up as Mom, Machaela, and Jesse got home.

"The drive is clear," Jesse told us as they walked in.

"An emergency worker came through shortly after you left," Machaela picked up. "FEMA and Tennessee Emergency Management are leading efforts to get up here. The trucks are currently fifteen miles south of us. They should get through soon with supplies and to start clearing the roads."

I looked at her funny. "If the trucks aren't through yet, how is he up here?"

"He lives near here, and has a radio on the same channel. He's going through the neighborhoods on skis helping where needed and telling everyone he can."

Before I could answer, footsteps sounded on the porch, then someone used a foot to knock at the door. Mom hurried over to open it, and Susan and John walked in, each carrying a full trash bag.

I grabbed the bag from John and Jesse grabbed the one from Susan, and we brought them into the living room.

"What's all this?" Machaela asked what we were all wondering.

"Open it," Susan replied with a smile.

I opened the bag I had to find it full of canned goods mixed with slightly damp clothes. Susan started talking again, "We dug through the rubble to find anything we could use. After finding the pantry, we grabbed everything we could, and the clothes were all stored in the extra bedroom."

"That's great!" Machaela replied. "I'm glad you were able to find so much."

John shrugged. "It's not a lot, and it's not even the treasured stuff, but it's better than nothing."

We all moved into the kitchen for a late lunch, and conversation turned to how long the snow would stay.

His comments had sparked an idea for me, though, which I noodled until everyone finished eating. Susan and John agreed to take over the fire, and I talked Mom and my siblings into coming back outside with me. I made sure to grab my Hunter's bag and the sled as we left.

 **Hello, my readers! Thanks to ILikeReading1 and stormrunner74 for their reviews, and I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. Don't forget to let me know what you think!**


	5. Chapter 5

"Machaela," I started, "when we were searching for the Stephens, you could sense air pockets beneath the debris, right?" She nodded. "Do you think you could sense small objects?"

She thought a minute. "Maybe. I wasn't really paying attention earlier, but I don't see why not. Why?"

I explained my idea to try to get some of the more important things from the collapsed house, and they agreed to give it a shot.

We split up around the house and started marking hieroglyphs in the dirt: one on each corner, and a few in straight lines between them, marking out the boundary for the spell. Then, we lined up in front of the house and started the spell to activate the glyphs. As we chanted, we lifted our hands, holding them level, then slowly tilted them from one side to the other. The debris from the house slowly lifted a couple feet off the ground, then followed our movements.

With Machaela leading us, we slowly lifted and sifted the remains of the house, making all the small items most likely to be treasured possessions fall to the bottom. Then, still chanting, we lifted our hands higher and began the final phase. We set a time duration, a boundary, and a warning signal, then sealed it with a command word: _Drowah. Boundary._ A shelf of shimmering light appeared beneath the hanging debris and the debris, released from our telekinesis, fell to rest on the boundary. We had one hour to sift through the small stuff before the boundary failed, and we'd get a two-minute warning to get out of the way.

I set an alarm as a precaution, and we got to work sifting, digging, searching through the remains of the house. I picked up pictures, albums, CDs, movies, clothes, jewelry, and anything else I could find whether it seemed personal or day-to-day, only ensuring that it looked whole. The unlimited space in my bag made the quantity I grabbed irrelevant. I saw the others focusing on the stuff that looked most important, as they had to run outside the boundary every so often to lay stuff on the ground.

More pictures, a dented jewelry box, a safe, a particularly soft blanket, a well-loved stuffed animal, all went into my bag. I grabbed games, foodstuff, papers from a half-flattened filing cabinet, a stack of clothes from two different sections of the house (hopefully some in there for Cindy, Susan, and John), and some books along with four suitcases I found in a corner.

By this point, we were running out of time, and I started focusing on finding the everyday things they would wish they had. Near the front door, I found winter gear. Back in the living room, I found a wallet, a purse, and a half-read book with the bookmark still in it. I grabbed someone's cellphone (with a cord still attached) right as the boundary flared above me, our two-minute warning. A second later, my phone chimed, confirming it.

"Time to move, guys!"

We picked our way through the smaller debris that hadn't lifted with the big stuff, the others carrying an armload. We had just enough time to get out of the way, as a few seconds after Mom cleared the debris field, the magical boundary dissolved and everything dropped back to its former place.

We put everything in front of the house, where I started picking things up and organizing them. The others gathered the smaller piles from around the border and moved them to the front, then started helping me organize which bag they would go into.

I dragged over the suitcases and a duffle bag Jesse had found, then turned to Machaela. "Do you know a spell that expands holding capacity without adding weight?"

She nodded and got to work on the duffle bag while I got to work packing everything we'd grabbed into the suitcases, using the clothes as padding. When she finished with the duffle, we were able to put everything else in there. Together, we'd saved a lot of stuff. Some of it they might not want to keep, but I'd rather let them get rid of damaged or insignificant objects than me leave something behind they wanted.

Once everything we'd grabbed was inside a suitcase, we each grabbed a load and started dragging them back to the house through the (extremely) slowly melting snow.

Susan and John came running outside as we came down the driveway, wondering what we had and where we had gone. As we got closer, Susan suddenly stopped and put her hand over her mouth.

"How did you get those suitcases?" she asked. We just grinned and led her inside.

Moving the bedding and setting the stuff where Jean could see everything from the couch, we set the bags down, then made sure each person was in front of a certain bag, as we had organized them by the most likely owner.

"We dug through your house some, and managed to find quite a bit," I told them softly. "I hope we got the treasures that stand out most in your mind."

Machaela started lighting the candles for the night as they opened their suitcases.

"Copper!" I hear Cindy squeal in excitement. She grabbed the well-loved stuffed dog I'd found and hugged it. After showing her parents and hugging it for a couple minutes, she settled down again, but Copper stayed in her lap as she explores more into the bag.

Susan reached into her suitcase to find clothes on top. Soft sweaters and hardy shoes padded the more delicate things beneath. Her breath caught when she saw the jewelry box. Gently pulling it from its cocoon, she started opening its drawers, searching for something. Machaela had seen the same thing, and her hand went to her pocket.

Knowing Machaela wouldn't bring whatever she'd found out yet, I spoke up. "Susan?" Susan stopped searching the box. "What are you looking for? What did you store in that jewelry box?"

She gave me a watery smile. "My Grammy's necklace was in there. It had a gold chain with a small gold cross pendant. A turquoise ring was also on the chain, but I don't see it here." She seemed to slump a bit. "It must have fallen out when everything collapsed."

I glanced over at Machaela, who had a happy smile on her face. With Susan distracted, Machaela walked up and slowly lowered the necklace into Susan's line of sight. A second later, Susan saw it and gasped. Cupping it in her hands, she just stared a moment, as if confirming it was really there, then she tackled Machaela in a hug.

"Where did you find it?" Susan wanted to know.

Machaela shrugged. "I don't know the layout of your house, but it was near a wall a few steps from a bed frame. I assume where your dresser used to be."

While Susan and Cindy explored the top layers of their suitcase, John had just watched, and I knew he cared more about their happiness than any stuff. He probably hadn't grown attached to a certain object the way girls tend to do; he would be more focused on fixing the situation, on wishing he'd been able the grab the things they'd need and how now to procure them. He enjoyed watching them be happy and forget for the moment, however, and I knew he wouldn't say anything about his worries.

I had caught him mumbling to himself a few times since the collapse—problem solving and working solutions—and his solutions usually came around to and stopped at a few objects he didn't have on him when the house came down, like his wallet or his phone or even his keys. He hadn't grabbed the everyday most-important-items when he left, since he hadn't actually left. He'd climbed out from.

I knew he was thinking of all these thing as he watched his wife and daughter exclaim over so many of the things in their bags, little things that they valued like a favorite book and the big things like Susan's purse. I caught his eye and smiled at him, nodding to his own bag. He raised an eyebrow and opened it up, finding a wallet laying on top. A grin spit his face and he looked at me. I nodded again.

On top of his bag were a few things I thought he'd find most important: a wallet, a set of keys, and a cellphone. His jaw dropped and I smiled, glad we'd guessed rightly when we decided those were his. Further down among some clothes were small hand tools and things that might come in handy in small odd jobs wherever they landed now that they didn't have a house, all found in what appeared to be the remains of a workshop where most people would have a garage.

They explored their bags well past sundown, finding knickknacks and valuables mixed in with clothes, foodstuff, and a few books. Four suitcases and an overstuffed duffel held all that remained of their possessions, but it was more than they'd had the night before, and they still had the most important things: each other.

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter of this very fluffy story. Thanks again to the two people who reviewed last chapter, and don't forget to tell me what you thought! :D Happy reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning we all woke to heavy equipment out on the main road. Looking out the window, we saw front-end loaders, dump trucks, and other heavy equipment slowly clearing the road. They must have been working all night to get to us already, as I figured they would clear the highway and town before even starting down here, unless they were just getting everything south to north and had several crews working, which was possible. In that case, we would be among the first to get cleared, being on the south end of town.

Anyway, with the roads opening, Susan and John started gathering up any of their things they'd had out. As soon as the road was clear, they announced, they'd "get out of our hair" and head down to the community center. We all tried to protest that we didn't mind them being there at all, but they would hear none of it. Having decided they'd used enough of our hospitality, they were going to the shelter, so we started helping.

They were going to go as soon as they got packed, but we managed to convince them to give the crews a bit more time to get that direction, as the closest community center was away from the highway, and the crews might not have gotten through to there yet.

With no reason to go outside, we played board games all morning, which was a lot of fun with so many people.

The crews finally got to our road (a branch of the main road) about lunchtime. John decided they would leave after eating, and nothing we said would change his mind.

Mom and I prepared canned food lunch for everyone, as even though our refrigerated food was still good, that was only due to a _make cold_ spell Jesse had put on it, and we didn't know if the Stephens' knew about the House of Life.

As we were finishing our meal, Jesse called out that someone was stopped on the main road, and we crowded around the window.

Through the trees, it looked like someone had parked an SUV where our road branched from the main road, but we couldn't see anyone around it due to it being four feet below our line of sight, hidden by the snowdrift.

Worried someone might be broken down, Machaela and I volunteered to go look. We convinced everyone else to stay at the house, as if something went wrong I could always call Jesse.

With the temperature still well below freezing, Machaela and I bundled up, strapped on our snowshoes, and started hiking towards the road.

"Who do you think it is?" Machaela asked about halfway up.

I shrugged. "Could be anyone. Might be someone lost in the snow. Or maybe someone's car got stuck in the gutter. We'll find out in a minute."

Reaching the road, we followed the top of the snow up to the parked car, but there was nobody there.

"Hello?" I called. "Is someone in trouble?"

No one responded, and Machaela was about to call out when she cut herself off. "Look!" she pointed at the pile of rubble. "Someone's digging through their house!" I followed her hand and, sure enough, tracks from the car led to two people digging through the rubble of the Stephens' house

"Hey!" we called, hopping down the snow bank and climbing up the other side. "Anything you find in that house doesn't belong to you!" I continued.

The closer of the two people turned around as we reached the top of the snow on the opposite side of the road, and we approached warily. We didn't want anyone stealing anything left in the house, but we also didn't want to get hurt because some crazy was looking to steal something.

As they got closer, the person turned out to be an older lady, and she was calling something, but I couldn't quite make it out at first.

It wasn't until she got close that I finally realized what she was asking. "Where's my son? Oh, my son! My son!"

Her son? "Ma'am, you need to calm down," I tried to soothe her. "Who's your son?" I asked, but she was too distraught to answer me.

The other person came up then, a man about the same age as the lady. He was much calmer, though extremely sad, and answered for her. "John. John Stephens. We're his parents and we were trying to find him in the rubble. This used to be their house. We heard about the storm on the news and tried to call, but it wouldn't go through. We drove through the night to get here, but we're too late. We couldn't find them."

He turned to try to comfort his wife and I turned to Machaela, who was thinking the same thing.

"Come on," she told them gently. "It's cold out here and you don't have a coat on. Let's get you inside, and we'll tell you what little we know."

We helped them down the cliff made from the plowed road, and up the other side, then started down the road to the driveway. As we reached the driveway, the lady, who said her name was Barbara (her husband was John Senior) finally voiced a question that'd been bubbling since we started moving.

"What do you know?" she asked, using Machaela's words.

I glanced over at Machaela, who nodded at me, and answered. "The storm started three days ago and dumped about two feet of snow the first day, killing the nearest cellphone tower. The house fell a couple hours before sunset the second and last day of the storm after about three and a half feet had fallen, knocking out power to several houses in this area." We were about halfway down the driveway by now, and I tried to time it right. "By the time it fell, pretty much everyone in this area was snowed it, unable to get out of the house."

Hope came back into their eyes, which was what I had been aiming for. "'Pretty much everyone'?" John repeated.

I grinned and helped them down a steep part of the driveway. My timing was almost right, as the silence had stretched just a little too long when the front door slammed.

Mom and Susan, seeing Machaela and I helping someone come down the driveway, had come out to help without knowing who was there. Barbara recognized Susan before Susan even had the chance to get off the porch.

With a cry of relief, Barbara and John rushed to Susan, wrapping her in a hug between them. Susan looked at us, her question written on her face.

"Apparently they've been trying to call you," I explained as the couple broke the hug, "but the calls didn't go through, for obvious reasons. We found them digging through the rubble trying to find you."

John came out right then, Cindy right behind him. "Mom?" "Grandma?" they said in unison. I sighed as the couple embraced their son and granddaughter, as I knew I would now have to repeat myself, but Mom chuckled and started moving everyone inside.

Once we'd gathered in the living room, which was starting to get a bit crowded, John Sr. told his son and the rest of us what had led them here and how he and Barbara had assumed them buried when they found the collapsed house covered in snow. In return, Susan told about Mom, my siblings, and I being the only ones able to get out into the storm and how we'd found them, which led to the four of us blushing bright red when Barbara and John insisted on hugging each of us.

Attempting to change the subject, I asked if they were finished packing. They nodded and grabbed the bags, which prompted another explanation as to how they had so much if their house had collapsed around them. This, of course, put too much focus on me again.

Thankfully, though, this time Barbara changed the subject, asking why they were packing.

"We're going up to the community center where the Red Cross should have set up a shelter by now," Susan replied.

"Oh, no you're not," was Barbara's adamant response. "You're coming home with us."

Cindy's dad tried to protest, of course, but his parents are more stubborn than he is. They would be staying with his parents until they found a new house.

With about a six-hour drive ahead of them due to the storm, everybody said their goodbyes and the Stephens' headed south to the highway, where they'd turn west. With them gone, the five of us had a simple, quiet day playing board and card games.

That evening we switched on the old radio to listen for any announcements. Most of it was the old blah blah blah about "the Cumberland Plateau has seen record snowfall" and "crews are still working to clear all the county roads in this area." We were almost out of battery for today when something helpful finally came on.

"The school board has cancelled school until all the roads have been plowed. At that time they will reevaluate and announce day-by-day," our local DJ declared. "The electric company is aware that many lack power. They will begin work as soon as their trucks can get through.

"The Red Cross has shelters in the community centers and school gyms for anyone unable to return to their homes. They will also be driving through neighborhoods delivering food for anyone in need.

"FEMA has one lane of the highway cleared between here and the interstate. High clearance cars can get through, though please expect double to triple travel times.

"We can expect this snow to stick around for two to three more days before melting off. Our temperatures will be in the high twenties through the week, finally warming up to mid-fifties Sunday, when we should see a good amount melt. Remember, low-lying areas are under a flood watch from this melt-off. And that's all for today. Here's the…"

"No school!" I half-jokingly celebrated as we turned the radio off. Mom shook her head at me, a smile on her face. "But seriously," I continued. "Going by that, we can probably expect the electric crews here tomorrow morning, since it's much too late today." I glanced out the window, eyeing the driveway covered in over four feet of snow. "And we probably won't be driving anywhere until the weekend, because I really don't see me shoveling that driveway when we can get out and about in other ways." At that, Machaela and Jesse nodded their heads.

"We're too exposed to take the shortcut," Jesse agreed, not wanting to shovel it any more than I did, "but we have enough supplies for a few days, yet."

Mom obviously didn't like the idea of being essentially stuck here for a few more days, but she didn't argue. Besides, with the Stephens' gone and Jean in the loop, we could get into the refrigerated/frozen food, and we had all kinds of goodies in there.

The next two days passed slowly, filled with board games, puzzles, and various pre-internet forms of entertainment, many of which were new to Jesse and me.

It finally warmed up the third day after Susan, John, and Cindy left, and the snow started melting rapidly. With the snow turning to slush, our snowshoes no longer supported us, and we ended up clearing the driveway. Jean helped us a lot by teaching us a new spell that allowed us to take a different shortcut to clear the driveway, one without being obvious with magic.

The next day the power came back on and Jean happily moved back into her own home and her own bed. She was starting to hurt sleeping on the couch, and I knew she felt like she had imposed on us long enough.

The snow continued to melt, and, by this point, most of the roads were clear. The morning after Jean went home, the school board announced school would be in session the next day, in spite of all unplowed areas (grass, driveways, etc.) still having just over a foot of snow, an unheard-of move in this state as they usually wait for all snow to melt before reopening. With this announcement, our blizzard adventure ended how it began: I still hadn't figured out my calculus homework.

"Grace? Do you know anything about the Stephens' new house being built on their lot?"

Okay, maybe not exactly how it began. It really is too bad a LotusCash card doesn't help with homework. I guess money can't solve everything.

 **Well, I was actually planning for this to be 7 chapters, but the 7th would have been too short. Lucky you :P Anyways, hope you enjoyed the final chapter of this very fluffy, anticlimactic story. Don't forget to review what you thought.**

 **Also, I'm taking oneshot/short story requests for my Life of a Demigod universe. Any questions about a minor plot hole in LoD? Did I leave something too open for you? Did I hint at an event but not explain it? Let me know and I might get time to write it out.**

 **Happy Reading!**


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